Salman Rushdie, Twitter CEO to receive PEN awards

NEW YORK—One writes novels and likes to tweet. The other is Twitter's CEO. Both men, Salman Rushdie and Dick Costolo, will be honored May 5 in New York at the annual gala of the PEN American Center.

The literary organization told The Associated Press on Thursday that Rushdie will receive its PEN/Allen Foundation Literary Service Award, citing the "unparalleled courage" of Rushdie, a former PEN president who spent years in hiding after his novel "The Satanic Verses" drew death threats from the Iranian government. Nobel laureate Toni Morrison, who won the award in 2008, will introduce Rushdie.

Costolo will be given the inaugural PEN/Toni and James C. Goodale Digital Freedom Award, in recognition of Twitter being "a powerful new tool" for free expression worldwide. PEN has not decided who will present him.